Transgender poker player Michelle Nastasis' "LGBT Poker Tour" appears to be a scam

[Dan Druff]

Druff's note: This thread was deleted in 2016, and revived in 2020. The LGBT Tour being referenced here is long gone, and never got off the ground.

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Meet Michelle Nastasis:




Michelle is a male-to-female transgender, who plays poker.

She has started the LGBT Poker Tour, which can be found at this website: http://www.michellenastasis.com/lgbt-poker-tour.html


However, this poker tour is not what it seems!

Dan Ross of Holdem Radio decided to investigate it. This is what Dan posted on the Holdem Radio Facebook page:

For all the good we come across within the poker community, every once in a while we see things that just shouldn't take place. After spending a great deal of time investigating and doing our homework, we've learned the proposed LGBT Poker Tour is not being accurate in the promotions leading up to its listed start later this year.

The tour's founder/director has claimed to have five locations secured, three Team Pro's and three National Sponsors, all listed via the LGBT Poker Tour's FB page, the promoter's FB pages and a website dedicated to the tour promoter and to her own activities.

We have obtained in writing from each poker room, team pro and sponsor that none of the businesses or people have any involvement in the LGBT Poker Tour, nor have they ever had any business agreements.

The first four casinos/poker rooms have responded back to us to state they are NOT holding a Tour event at their location and there's never been any agreement to do so. The last listed casino did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

All three listed "Team Pro's" say they have never met the tour promoter, never talked to her, and never agreed to be a Team Pro. One requested his name be removed and received no reply back. Another told me he is prepared to sue to have his name removed.

Of the three listed "National Sponsors," two have replied back stating they have never had any involvement with the LGBT Poker Tour, and one stating their legal team would be working to take care of this on their end. We missed a number of direct connections with the third sponsor, who eventually replied back stating they were not interested in such a sponsorship.

We ask that you not use this posting to make derogatory comments about the tour, its promoter or anyone who had been involved with the LGBT Poker Tour via our comments section. This is informational based on our extensive investigation into the tour and is being posted to let the poker community know our findings about an organization that is not putting out accurate information about its alleged startup poker tour.

--Dan Ross
Hold'em Radio

This is similar to the "Super Millions"/PokerApproved scam, which was profiled in 2014 on this site. In that case, again the organizer made grandiose claims about a major poker tournament he was organizing, when in fact the listed venues had not agreed to hold events there, and many other false claims were made by the organizer. Super Millions never got off the ground, wasting the money and time of many people who were offered (actually nonexistent) jobs there.

While Michelle Nastasis had nothing to do with Super Millions, her LGBT Poker Tour bears striking similarity to that scam.

The LGBT Poker Tour webpage claims that it will take place at Talking Stick, Cache Creek, 500 Club, and Paris Las Vegas.

Dan Ross says he has written statements that none of those casinos have agreements with the LGBT Poker Tour.

The listed "tour pro's" (misspelling and all) are Jason Stern, Raymond Davis, and Ron Ware. Again, all three of these guys deny being tour pros, and in fact have no knowledge of Michelle or the LGBT Poker Tour. They were all blindsided by hearing that their names were up there, according to Dan Ross.

Dan also mentions "national sponsors" who have denied involvement, but I can't even find mention of those on the LGBT Poker Tour page, so maybe Michelle already removed them after receiving legal threats.

This thing has huge scam written all over it.


Ross claimed that he started investigating when he saw a ridiculous claim regarding their $250,000 guarantee:

When this 'Poker Tour' began advertising a $350 Main Event with a $250,000 guarantee on a single entry flight - that's 782 entries to make guarantee - it was pretty clear something wasn't accurate, especially when one of the claimed 'tour locations' has fewer than 6 tables and another fewer than 12.

Here's a story about Michelle posted on Facebook by Lori Davenport, a member within the Biloxi poker community:







So if you believe Lori's story (which I do), it seems that Michelle is broke and is looking for any way to get money.

So what is Michelle's angle here? If the LGBT Poker Tour is never going to take place, how would she make money from it, even if the whole thing is a lie?

Given the outlandish claim of $250,000 guarantees at tiny venues, it seems that Michelle knows that the event will never take place.

Bottom line: Do not trust Michelle Nastasis, and do not get involved with the fraudulent LGBT Poker Tour!

[Dan Druff]

I have tweeted out this story and included Michelle in the tweet.

She is welcome to register an account here to refute this, if she would like.

Michelle is also welcome to come on our radio show and refute this.

I do not know Michelle Nastasis personally, and am simply reporting what appears to be an obvious scam.

Thanks to Dan Ross of Holdem Radio for the work he did on this matter.

[Sanlmar]

Lot to read... of course, starting another poker tour in 2016 is a crime.

Even Plop agrees apparently. Plop was always public and comfortable with being a cash player.

[Dan Druff]

Here's a now-deleted picture from the LGBT Tour site with the "sponsors", both of which denied they ever agreed to anything.

[VegasJim]

Not the first Transgender Poker player. Over 8 years ago (that I can recall) I was at a poker table with a Woman named Rosa Klaneski who identified as Transgender. She plays Tournaments on the East Coast and has been a big advocate for the Transgender community and has a blog and wrote several books on the the lifestyle etc.


http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=124463

[IamGreek]

Here's a now-deleted picture from the LGBT Tour site with the "sponsors", both of which denied they ever agreed to anything.

LOL. Paris hasn't had a poker room for several years, at least as of July of last year. I'll check it out in June when I am there tho.

[Dan Druff]

From 2014: